Gaza war takes a toll on Egypt-Israel ties
Against all odds, 1979 peace treaty set to survive turmoil
Cairo: Egyptian-Israeli ties have been among casualties of the Gaza war, suffering their worst deterioration in more than four decades.
The raging war at Egypt’s doorstep has also added to pressure on the economy already roiled by conflicts in other parts of the region and fallout from the Ukraine-Russian crisis.
Egypt hosts more than 9 million refugees, according to official figures.
Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979. Both countries had previously fought four wars.
‘Cold peace’
Since 1979, their relations were mostly quiet, billed as “cold peace” amid anti-Israel sentiment among ordinary Egyptians and a ban from the professional associations on their members having contacts with Israelis. At the official level, links between Cairo and Tel Aviv were often in good shape during those years.
This all changed after the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on Egypt’s eastern border.
Forced displacement a ‘red line’
Cairo has been worried that the Israeli military operations in the heavily populated Gaza Strip would force a Palestinian exodus into its Sinai Peninsula. Egyptian officials have categorically balked at the potential refugee flight and called it a “red line” for national security.
“We have stressed for everyone the Egyptian stance firmly rejecting plans for forcibly displacing our Palestinian brothers either from the Gaza Strip or the west Bank to Egypt and Jordan in order to prevent the liquidation of the (Palestinian) cause and harm to our national security,” Egyptian President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi said in November.
Tensions between Cairo and Tel Aviv mounted after Israeli officials accused Egypt of allegedly condoning arms smuggling to Gaza, an accusation that drew a sharp rebuke from Egyptian officials and put the peace treaty at risk.
In a sign of frayed ties, Egypt said in May it would formally join South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
In the announcement, Egypt attributed the step to what it called “aggravation of the intensity and scale of Israeli aggression against the civilian Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, insistence on perpetrating systematic practices against the Palestinian people including direct targeting of civilians, destroying the Strip’s infrastructure and pushing Palestinians to displacement and migration to outside their lands”.
Rafah incursion
The Egyptian move was taken amid an Israeli incursion into Gaza’s far south Rafah city, packed with hundreds of thousands displaced Palestinians near Egypt’s border. Egypt has closed the Rafah border crossing with Gaza since May after Israel seized the Palestinian side of the vital facility. Egypt has repeatedly demanded Israelis withdraw from the crossing and refused to coordinate with them to re-operate it.
In late May, Egypt said one of its soldiers had been killed at the border with Gaza, but without putting the blame squarely on Israel. At the time, Egyptian media reported that the incident happened during an exchange of fire between Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters.
Cairo was particularly angry after Israeli forces wrested control of the Philadelphi Corridor, a 14-kilometre strip on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel’s military presence there is a “strategic and political necessity” for his country.
Israel claimed there are tunnels under the corridor used to smuggle weapons into Gaza. Egypt dismissed the claims as an Israeli attempt to “paper over its failure” in Gaza and to prolong the war there for “political purposes”.
Since 2013, Egypt has mounted a years-long campaign against Islamist militants in Sinai and destroyed hundreds of cross-border tunnels with Gaza that were used for transferring fighters and arms, officials said.
Israeli presence in the corridor was a major sticking point in recent negotiations for an exchange and ceasefire deal that ended inconclusively. For months, Egypt, Qatar and the US have brokered for the deal.
Peace: A ‘strategic choice’ for Egypt
A spiral in the strains has fuelled speculation that a frustrated Egypt would suspend the peace treaty. But Cairo swiftly quashed the speculation and espoused the treaty as a strategic choice.
“The Egyptian-Israeli peace agreement is a strategic choice that Egypt has made for more than four decades,” Egypt’s then Foreign Minister Sameh Shukry said in May. “It (the treaty) is considered a mainstay in the region to achieve peace and security. The agreement has its mechanisms that are activated to address any violations,” he added.
Despite its sometimes-blunt criticism of Israeli stalling tactics, Egypt has confirmed on several occasions resolve to continue to mediate in indirect talks between Hamas and Israel. Cairo has already hosted several rounds of negotiations.
Tense as their ties may be, Egypt and Israel are keen to keep their peace treaty alive, according to experts.
“Both countries continue to benefit greatly from the 1979 treaty — the Israeli military has not had to mass forces along the border with its former enemy in decades, while Egypt has enjoyed long-term engagement and funding from the United States in large part due to the treaty,” wrote David Schenker, a senior fellow at The Washington Institute.
“The peace treaty has withstood the test of time since it was signed in March 1979,” said Salah Al Hadi an Egyptian analyst.
“Over the past 45 years, several bilateral and regional problems have cropped up. But the treaty still exists. Despite provocations, Egypt exercises restraint and adheres to the treaty because, as experience has shown, it is beneficial for the region’s stability and mediation efforts,” he added.